DDoS attacks on organizations continues to climb

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are on the rise, with over a third (33%) of organisations facing a DDoS attack in 2017 – compared to 17% in 2016.

Cybercriminals are increasingly using DDoS attacks as a way to gain access to valuable and lucrative corporate data, and not just to cripple a victim’s services. This rapid development in the cyberthreat landscape has meant that all businesses are potential DDoS attack targets – from very small businesses through to enterprises.

According to Kaspersky Lab’s Global IT Security Risks Survey 2017, 50% of businessesclaim that the frequency and complexity of DDoS attacks targeting organizations like theirs is growing every year. Indeed,33% of organisations experienced an attack in 2017 – double the amount in 2016, demonstrating the importance of increased awareness and protection against DDoS attacks, which show no sign of slowing down.

Of those affected, 20% were very small businesses, 33% SMBs and 41% enterprises – demonstrate that all types and size of organisations are at risk.Although figures for this year show that companies are more likely to experience just one attack– in 2016, 82% facedmore than one DDoS attack, compared to 76% this year – the consequences are no lesssevere, resulting in significant business disruption. 26% of the organisations that have been hit by DDoS attacksreported a significant decrease in performance of services, and 14% said there was a failure of transactions and processes on affected services.

As well causing immediate and visible operational issues, many companies also claim that DDoS attacks are being used to cover-up other types of incident – leading to severe financial and reputational damage. In the first half of 2017, over half of those respondents affected by a DDoS attack (53%) claimed that it was used as a smokescreen.

Half (50%) reported that the attack hid a malware infection; 49% said that it masked a data leak or theft; and 42% said that the DDoS attack was used to cover up a network intrusion or hacking. Another 26% of businesses reported that the attack was hiding financial theft.

To help businesses defend themselves from DDoS attacks – regardless of attack origin – Kaspersky DDoS Protection provides a complete, integrated solution that includes everything a business needs to minimise the threat of DDoS attacks.